Gamescom: Serious Sam 3 is Crazy

Share.

Screaming guys with bombs for hands still effective at creating panic.

By Charles Onyett

It shouldn't be too surprising to hear Serious Sam 3 is totally nuts. Playing is a simple pleasure. Run like crazy and kill things as fast as you can with big guns. Guys with bombs for hands, leaping skeletons and mechanized monsters relentlessly attack, and you've got to keep your ammo count up and aim true to blast them into the ground. There's even a helicopter with tentacles spilling out of the cockpit. Are the tentacles manning the controls? Does it matter?

The answer, of course, is no. Aside from killing things fast enough to stay alive, little else matters. You get pistols, shotguns, rocket launchers, remotely detonated explosives, a cannon (it fires gigantic cannon balls that roll over enemies and shatter palm trees) and a minigun. There's a chainsaw, but it wasn't in the build I played. Sam can also use assault rifles and, possibly to the chagrin of some hardcore fans, aim down the sights for a slightly zoomed in view through the dot scope. That sort of thing doesn't really change the gameplay, though. All you ultimately have to do is pull the trigger.

Sam will travel across multiple zones of combat, from urban environments to Egyptian sands. In Egypt the combat areas are especially vast, with borders stretching far into the distance. One particular battlefield was set across a thin pool of water dotted with trees and ringed by ruined structures housing ammo pickups. As Sam enters alien murder-fiends spawn from all sides and shoot and swat with all the deadly elements available to them. On some Sam can perform melee attacks, kicking back soldiers and ripping the skulls from skeleton demons before tossing them to the side. With enough sustained fire bits of the environment can be crumbled and shattered. It's a chaotic, silly and satisfying kind of combat.

Serious Sam 3 will include 16 player co-op play that scales up in difficulty and density of enemies as more join. Considering how many were frantically attacking me at all times, I have to imagine the 16 player version will be a special kind of absurdity when it's ready some time soon. I only hope the action doesn't get too repetitive before it's over.